What the alethiometer can't tell her
by InLoveWithEdward1218
Summary: 1shot at the end of book 2. After Will's father is killed, the witches go to retrieve the body, and leave a very distraught Will with Lyra, and they both have some realizations that will change them both forever.


**AUTHOR'S NOTE: I do not own any of these characters or the series itself. I also have not finished the last book in the series, so this doesn't take into account what might happen in the Amber Spyglass.**

LYRA

I stared up into the sky, absentmindedly stroking Pan, who was curled in my lap. He was in the shape of a mongoose type creature, although a bit smaller. His fur was soft beneath my fingers, and I sighed at the familiarity of it. Above us a few witches were hovering, and one or two more were sleeping at the edge of the trees. I think they thought I was still asleep. I counted them, and thought one was missing, but the ones in the air were in constant motion, so I figured I had just miscounted.

Will had wandered off restlessly a few minutes earlier, and I hadn't stopped him, because I knew he was stressed, and I wouldn't want to have been stopped if I was in his position. Instead I devoted my time to searching for a grouping of stars my uncle… I mean father, had told me about on one of his visits to Jordan college when I was younger. He called it the big Dipper, and said it had a little Dipper near it, I decided that the little dipper must have been the big Dipper's Daemon.

By the time I found the familiar constellation, both Pan's and my eyes were starting to droop. I wanted to stay awake until Will returned, but I was quickly losing the fight against unconsciousness. Serafina Pekkala, the witch that had grown to be like an older sister to me, if not a mother, lifter her face and I could see she was very alert. She was looking in the direction that Will had headed, and I immediately regretted letting him go alone.

"What is it?" I looked up at her, waiting for a response. The look on her face was slightly confused; she had believed I was still asleep. She listened for a long moment, still watching the trees where Will had walked through. I followed her gaze, and listened as intently as I could. Pan was an owl in an instant, and perched on my shoulder, listening.

"It sounds like… crying." Pan whispered to me, remaining in a whisper, so Serafina could hear what it was that I couldn't. As the moments dragged on, I could hear crying, unmistakably human.

My breath caught in my throat. "Will." After another twenty seconds or so, the cries of agony growing always louder, Will crashed through the brush, tears streaming down his face. I looked to him in alarm. "What happened? Are you alright?"

"She's killed him! She's killed my father!" I could see a numbness coming over his face, and knew he was telling the truth. I didn't know how, or who had killed him, but I knew that John Parry was somehow dead.

Serafina looked down at Will with a sympathetic face, "Who's killed him?"

"One of yours!" He practically spit the answer at her, and I understood at once. One of the witches had killed his father.

A look of pain crossed Serafina's face momentarily at the hate in Will's voice, but she quickly recovered herself. She called to the other witches, "Sisters, fly with me, we shall go to his father's resting place to retrieve the body, so that he may receive a proper send off." I knew by her tone that there were other unspoken plans for the witch that had committed such a crime.

They flew off silently over the trees that Will had just come through, and Will sat about 5 feet from me, silent tears rolling down his face. After a few moments, he looked up at me, eyes dry, but still red and puffy. "I found him Lyra. I found my father." In the next 7 minutes, he told me about the strange man in the woods who turned out to be his dad, I listened intently, nodding at the right moments and waiting patiently when he was choked up with tears that he was obviously trying to fight back. When he was done, we just looked at each other for a little while, not knowing what to say.

At that moment, I realized something the alitheometer would never be able to tell me. I cared for this boy more than anyone I had ever cared for before. I realized that every tear he cried, I cried too, on the inside. I saw myself reflected in his eyes, and suddenly wanted to embrace him, hold him together, and never let go.

So I did.

WILL

I was looking at Lyra, waiting for her to say something, anything, when suddenly her arms were around me unlike any way she had hugged me before. Something had changed, although I couldn't quite put my finger on it. When she let go, she was biting her lip, looking at me with a nervous face, awaiting my reaction. After a moment, I smiled, and hugged her the same way she had hugged me. Something passed between us in that instant, and I knew that I loved her; though differently than I had thought. I had been thinking of her like a sister, a best friend. In those short seconds we were embracing, I realized I loved her differently.

"Lyra, I think… I think I might… Love you." The expression on her face puzzled me. At first she laughed, then looked puzzled herself, and finally smiled.

"I think I might… love you too."

Of course neither of us knew the meaning of love, neither of us had ever really gotten to see it. We didn't have parents that were together and in love, we had only seen quick glances of couples holding hands, or even a scandalous kiss. The one thing we did know, was that we felt different about each other than we had ever felt about anyone.

An awkward silence settled between us, and we just looked at each other again, not knowing what to say or do. Lyra, being the adventurous one, spoke first.

"There is a scholar at home in Jordan, and every time I see him, he is looking off into the sky. The only time I see him focusing on anything else is when lady Covington is around. Then, the only thing he looks at is her eyes. Do you think they are in love?"

"I suppose. I've never seen them, but I guess it's possible."

"I think they are, and I think I can prove it."

"What do you mean?" Now she was confusing me.

"I saw them do something once. When they thought no one was looking. Someone is always watching though, and they didn't know that."

"What did they do?"

Lyra moved her hand on top of mine, "First she took his hand." She looked to our touching flesh, and smiled. If she was feeling the heat I was, I didn't see why she was smiling, my palm was sweating, and I was sure she could feel it. "Then…" Lyra leaned in close to me, and touched her lips to mine. It was like nothing I had ever felt before. Once when I was younger, I had kissed a girl on a dare, but I hadn't liked her, and it had been a sloppy, disgusting experience. I had vowed to never kiss a girl again. But this kiss was different. There was nothing pushy or intruding about it. We stayed like that for a moment before she pulled away. "…they kissed."

SERAFINA PEKKALA

I flew back to check on Lyra and Will, while the others discussed what had happened. It might not have been the brightest idea, me returning alone, but the bond I had made with the girl was strong, and my sisters could call me if they needed me. It only took me 5 minutes to fly the large expanse of trees, and what I saw when I got there took my breath away. I saw Lyra, and Will, asleep in each other's arms. There was something about them that had changed. They were still the children that I had left a few minutes earlier, but even in sleep, I could sense a newfound maturity. Will shifted in his sleep. But his arm stayed around Lyra's waist, and I knew. They had finally realized what I had known for days. They were soulmates.

**END NOTE: I realize this kinda changes the second book, and something along these lines probably happens in the third, but oh well, I couldn't wait. Please read and review!!! 3**

**P.S. My favorite reviewer gets their own Daemon!**


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